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Active and Passive Voice/Transcript
Transcript Text on a newspaper's front page reads: The Mysteries of Life with Tim and Moby Tim is sitting at his kitchen table, reading a newspaper. The front page story is about Mayor Doby's re-election and an ensuing scandal. Mayor Doby looks like Moby with a false moustache, toupee, and a monocle. TIM: Sheesh, politicians these days! Mayor Doby runs into the kitchen from outside. He lowers the blinds on the window, peeps through them, then removes his top hat. MOBY: Beep. TIM: I see you've been busy. MOBY: Beep. Moby examines a sheet of paper, then hands it to Tim. TIM: Really? A letter? MOBY: Beep. Tim reads from a typed letter. TIM: Dear Tim and Moby, my teacher says I should use more active voice in my writing. Is that always true? From, Warren. Hey, Warren. Voice has to do with how we construct sentences. Specifically, how we string together the subject, verb, and object. An animation shows the words "subject," "verb," and "object" arranged in a line and tied together with string. TIM: Swapping the order of these elements can turn a sentence from the active voice to the passive voice. The words change order so that it now reads "object, verb, subject." MOBY: Beep. TIM: Usually, the subject is the doer of the verb. It's the person, place, or thing that performs an action. The object receives the action of the verb. Sentences where the subject carries out an activity are in the active voice. An animation shows the sentence "Tim reads the newspaper." The word "Tim" is labeled as the subject. The word "reads" is labeled as the verb. The word "newspaper" is labeled as the object. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Well, because the subject is literally active. It's doing something like reading or... Tim turns to another page of his newspaper and stops speaking. He stares at a photo of Mayor Doby emptying the contents of a trashcan into a paper shredder. A caption beneath the photo reads: "Doby shreds official documents." TIM: Shredding? Tim looks at Moby. Moby shrugs and looks away. Tim looks at another photo in the newspaper. This one shows Mayor Doby wearing headphones and listening to a phone call. A caption beneath the photo reads: "Mayor Doby spies on an opponent's phone call." TIM: Spying? Tim sees another photo in the newspaper. This one shows Mayor Doby handing money to a small robot in a voting booth. The caption reads: "Mayor Doby buys a vote." TIM: Buying votes? Tim looks at Moby, who is cowering behind the kitchen table. TIM: You're in a lot of trouble, bucko. MOBY: Beep. Moby holds up the letter from earlier and points to it. Tim sighs. TIM: In the passive voice, we swap the object with the subject. So the action of the verb is performed on the subject. The newspaper is read by Tim. An animation shows the sentence "Tim reads the newspaper" changed to "The newspaper is read by Tim." The word "newspaper" is now labeled as a subject. The word "read" is labeled as a verb. The word "Tim" is labeled as an object. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Yeah. It sounds pretty clumsy, and it's wordier than the active voice. We have to shift the verb to the past tense, link it with the subject with a form of "to be," in this case, "is," and link it to the object with a preposition like "by." An animation shows the present-tense verb "reads" becoming the past-tense verb "read." A chain links the words "newspaper" and "is" to "read," forming the phrase "newspaper is read." Then a chain links that phrase to the words "by" and "Tim." MOBY: Beep. TIM: You can change the voice of almost any sentence. "Mayor Doby buys a vote" is active. An animation shows the sentence "Mayor Doby buys a vote." The words "Mayor Doby" are labeled as a subject. The word "buys" is labeled as a verb. The word "vote" is labeled as an object. TIM: We can switch it to the passive: "A vote is bought by Mayor Doby." The animation changes the sentence to passive voice, as Tim describes. The word "vote" is now the subject. The word "bought" is the verb. The words "Mayor Doby" are the object. TIM: In most cases, active voice will sound cleaner. That's why teachers recommend sticking with it. Tim looks at the picture of Mayor Doby buying the vote.The caption changes from "A vote is bought by Mayor Doby" to "Mayor Doby buys a vote." MOBY: Beep. TIM: Passive voice is grammatically correct, but the active voice is usually stronger and more dynamic. Tim opens a laptop computer. On its screen, a robot is speaking at a podium. Below the image, a news crawl quotes the robot as he speaks." TIM: Just look at what the district attorney is saying. “I will not tolerate corruption in any form." Not, "Corruption in any form will not be tolerated by me." Ooh, and look at that. Tim points at the laptop screen and continues reading. TIM: "Mayor Doby will pay for what he's done." MOBY: Beep. Moby looks afraid. TIM: Passive construction shifts attention away from the doer. A speaker or writer can use it to obscure who performed the verb. Like this guy. Mayor Doby now appears on the laptop screen. He is trying to slip away from a robot reporter who is questioning him. Text on the news crawl quotes Mayor Doby as stating: "Mistakes were made." MOBY: Beep. TIM: Right. "Mistakes were made" is passive, and it's unclear. We can't even tell who made the mistakes. What a weasel. MOBY: Beep. Moby frowns, reaches over, and closes Tim's laptop. TIM: Sure. Passive voice is fine when mentioning the doer isn't possible or necessary. Like when he's unknown. A newspaper headline flashes: "Fifty thousand dollars stolen from city accounts." TIM: Or totally obvious. Tim gives Moby a dirty look. Outside the house, a car alarm beeps. Moby is operating the car's remote, unlocking the vehicle from the kitchen. MOBY: Beep. TIM: That's a good point. Sticking with the active voice for too long can feel overly forceful. I mean, just listen to this DA. Tim reopens his laptop and reads from the screen. TIM: “The mayor is guilty. I will prosecute him fully. Authorities know where he is." As Tim reads, Moby runs around the house, grabbing and packing his belongings. TIM: Man. That's getting repetitive, isn't it? Using the passive voice can mix things up a bit. Ah, here we go. Tim returns to reading aloud. TIM: "Mayor Doby will be indicted by tomorrow morning." Mayor Doby runs from the house, gets into the car outside, and speeds off. Tim turns toward the viewer. TIM: Huh. Moby enters the room. He is wearing a shower cap and holding a rubber duck. There is a towel across his shoulders. MOBY: Beep. TIM: I see you finally took off that silly disguise. MOBY: Beep. Moby looks confused. TIM: The moustache and the wig. MOBY: Beep. Moby shakes his head "no." TIM: Right, your cousin Doby. Moby frowns and crosses his arms. The rubber duck squeaks. TIM: I'm sure the DA will buy that one. The scene changes to show an airplane flying in the sky. Inside the plane, a man is reading a newspaper. The newspaper's headline reads: "Mayor Doby on the lam. Where is he?" A pilot's voice comes over the intercom. PILOT: Ladies and gentlemen, the descent into Freedonia has been begun by us. The man looks up from his paper. Mayor Doby is seated next to him, wearing sunglasses and a hat to hide his identity. PILOT: All seatbacks should be ensured that they're in the upright position by, uh you. Category:BrainPOP Transcripts